Man accused of placing GPS device on victim’s car before burglarizing her home

Steven Alva Glaze has been charged with 14 counts of criminal damage, theft.

A burglary suspect currently on trial in Johnson County, Kansas allegedly put a GPS tracking device on a victim's car to determine whether anyone was home. The victim, an unnamed Overland Park woman, told her story to the Kansas City Staron Friday. Overland Park police, Leawood police, and Johnson County prosecutors declined to comment on the GPS allegation to the newspaper.

According to the Star, the suspect, Steven Alva Glaze, allegedly burglarized the woman's home on March 25. The victim owns a jewelry business in the Kansas City suburb. Glaze is now on trial for 14 counts of criminal damage to property, theft, attempted burglary, and burglary for the alleged crimes.

The use of GPS tracking devices surreptitiously installed on cars recalls the famous Jones v. United States case, in which the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in 2012 that law enforcement does not have the authority to warrantlessly place a device on a criminal suspect's vehicle. However, the use of GPS by criminal suspects to track victims still seems to be quite rare.

According to Overland Park police, the woman's home alarm system went offline around 2pm on March 25. That was around the same time that a truck with a trailer pulled up near the house and backed into the driveway, according to a neighbor.

“I came home about 5:30pm,” said the woman, whose house has been undergoing remodeling and construction. “I had been storing things in the garage and when I walked in the garage, it was like a war zone.”

Prosecutors accused Glaze of stealing more than “$100,000 in jewelry, purses, wallets, luggage, coins, and fur coats from the woman.” The woman claims that her losses total approximately three times that amount.

However, the use of GPS by criminal suspects to track victims seems to be still quite rare.

And they will be rarer still if the intended victim discovers them beforehand and then has someone waiting in ambush while leading the thief to believe they'll be gone for the day.

Or better yet, warn the cops.

Well, the scenario I described is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but unless you know for certain the suspect is going to hit your house at a certain time/date, you'd never be able to convince the police to stake out your house exclusively.

Setting up video cameras that can't be defeated seems like the best reasonable defence in such circumstances.

Edit: People are jumping to conclusions here in terms of what an 'ambush' might be. I never specified machetes and machine gun nests...

However, the use of GPS by criminal suspects to track victims seems to be still quite rare.

And they will be rarer still if the intended victim discovers them beforehand and then has someone waiting in ambush while leading the thief to believe they'll be gone for the day.

Or better yet, warn the cops.

Trying to capture crooks on your own rarely leads to Home Alone style wacky hijinks, usually it ends with bullet wounds and knife stabs.

And possible criminal charges. Setting out to deliberately ambush somebody with intent to kill/injure is generally frowned upon by law enforcement regardless of the motive.

At least where I live, I have a right to defend myself against someone who breaks into my home. It makes no difference whether I had reason to believe a burglar was coming, or whether a friend is driving my car that day.

That said, I'm not ready to match my spray can of whipped cream against whatever the Beagle Boys have chosen to carry. I also share the skepticism of "dlux" about convincing the police to stake out my house.

Web cams sound good. Even better is an off-duty cop paid by me and equipped with badge, gun, and most especially, a radio. Of course, I'd have to be well off, or have a really good idea of the target time.

At least where I live, I have a right to defend myself against someone who breaks into my home. It makes no difference whether I had reason to believe a burglar was coming, or whether a friend is driving my car that day.

That said, I'm not ready to match my spray can of whipped cream against whatever the Beagle Boys have chosen to carry. I also share the skepticism of "dlux" about convincing the police to stake out my house.

Web cams sound good. Even better is an off-duty cop paid by me and equipped with badge, gun, and most especially, a radio. Of course, I'd have to be well off, or have a really good idea of the target time.

Well, the right to defend (or however the law was worded in Florida--I'm not sure what all states have these laws) just gives you a legal out in an altercation. What one of the previous posters was saying about it still ending in gunshot or stab wounds is still applicable regardless of one's legal standing. I get your point, and I like your preferred methods (I'd suggest shaving cream instead of whipped cream though--it's more bitter and burns the eyes), but I think the overall point being made previously was that confronting a burglar leads to violence more often than not, regardless of the legalities of it.

At least where I live, I have a right to defend myself against someone who breaks into my home. It makes no difference whether I had reason to believe a burglar was coming, or whether a friend is driving my car that day.

That said, I'm not ready to match my spray can of whipped cream against whatever the Beagle Boys have chosen to carry. I also share the skepticism of "dlux" about convincing the police to stake out my house.

Web cams sound good. Even better is an off-duty cop paid by me and equipped with badge, gun, and most especially, a radio. Of course, I'd have to be well off, or have a really good idea of the target time.

Well, the right to defend (or however the law was worded in Florida--I'm not sure what all states have these laws) just gives you a legal out in an altercation. What one of the previous posters was saying about it still ending in gunshot or stab wounds is still applicable regardless of one's legal standing. I get your point, and I like your preferred methods (I'd suggest shaving cream instead of whipped cream though--it's more bitter and burns the eyes), but I think the overall point being made previously was that confronting a burglar leads to violence more often than not, regardless of the legalities of it.

Exactly. Your family will not be comforted that you were in your legal rights to defend yourself if the result of that fight was your death by gunshots.

However, the use of GPS by criminal suspects to track victims seems to be still quite rare.

And they will be rarer still if the intended victim discovers them beforehand and then has someone waiting in ambush while leading the thief to believe they'll be gone for the day.

Or better yet, warn the cops.

Trying to capture crooks on your own rarely leads to Home Alone style wacky hijinks, usually it ends with bullet wounds and knife stabs.

I don't want to be the glass is half empty dude, but do you really think cops are going to really pay attention to someone who walks in with a device that was attached to their car and nothing more? Since this behavior is relatively uncommon I would assume, maybe incorrectly, that the local police aren't going to assign a patrol to stake out a house for an undetermined amount of time based on......a little box that was found on a car. Welcome to the world of limited budgets at the state and county level. in addition to that if someone IS tracking with a device and you walk into a police station with it. (Because police are probably even less likely to assign someone to this without showing them the hardware.) The thief will know at which point they will walk away.

I expect this kind of thing to increase as the effort and cost of setting up such a surveillance is declining rapidly...

For instance the investment here to set-up the GPS tracking is equal to the cost of three iPhone 3GS's bought 2nd hand, 1 iTunes card to create an Apple Id, on all three devices set up that Apple ID and enable the find my iPhone feature, buy prepaid SIM cards* for the three devices so they could broadcast location via the cell network, plant two of the iPhones on mom and son, and watch your marks.

* I don't know if anonymous purchase of SIM cards is possible, but if not, this could potentially be overcome by using a 3rd party to buy the SIM card.

As the number of old iPhones proliferates, it will become continuously easier and cheaper to do this.

Eventually we will need an app to tell us if there is something continually broadcasting from our vehicle when we are underway!

Good point by the previous poster, if you ever do find such a device, don't drive to the police station, call the FBI/police and arrange to meet with an unmarked car somewhere in a location not subject to surveillance.

Btw, I am confused about her alarm going off-line and the seeming lack of response to this; isn't it standard practice for an alarm company to contact the customer or the cops in such an event? If not, what's the point of an alarm?

Basically, it looks like he was caught because he was in possession of a lot of items stolen from the woman's home; he's claiming that he should be charged with possession of stolen property and not burglary.

It seems like he had the GPS devices to track his trucks as part of a roofing business he used to own, but that's kind of an inference I'm drawing.

I'm not really sure that there are many advantages to using a GPS tracking device for burglary purposes, though: it increases the risk of being caught both placing it and removing it; it's fairly expensive; most people in the suburbs tend to be at work all day anyway; and the risk of being seen by a neighbor breaking into someone's house isn't reduced at all by use of the GPS.

I expect this kind of thing to increase as the effort and cost of setting up such a surveillance is declining rapidly...

For instance the investment here to set-up the GPS tracking is equal to the cost of three iPhone 3GS's bought 2nd hand, 1 iTunes card to create an Apple Id, on all three devices set up that Apple ID and enable the find my iPhone feature, buy prepaid SIM cards* for the three devices so they could broadcast location via the cell network, plant two of the iPhones on mom and son, and watch your marks.

* I don't know if anonymous purchase of SIM cards is possible, but if not, this could potentially be overcome by using a 3rd party to buy the SIM card.

As the number of old iPhones proliferates, it will become continuously easier and cheaper to do this.

Eventually we will need an app to tell us if there is something continually broadcasting from our vehicle when we are underway!

Good point by the previous poster, if you ever do find such a device, don't drive to the police station, call the FBI/police and arrange to meet with an unmarked car somewhere in a location not subject to surveillance.

Btw, I am confused about her alarm going off-line and the seeming lack of response to this; isn't it standard practice for an alarm company to contact the customer or the cops in such an event? If not, what's the point of an alarm?

Residential alarms also usually just make a lot of noise, they don't automatically alert the police. If they did, the amount of police time wasted would be immense. As for alerting the customer, would you walk out if work if your alarm went off?

And even if you did walk out and rush home, would you get home in time? I suspect most people would worry, then presume it is a false alarm and simply hurry home when they've finished what they're doing.

Also, request a meeting with an unmarked police or FBI car regarding a random box you found and they'll probably hang up on you.

He was caught while (apparently) breaking into someone else's house. The article doesn't describe how they linked him to this crime, or how the GPS devices were discovered.

Hopefully he installed that GPS unit wearing gloves.

Are you trolling or do you genuinely not want the cops to have some good evidence against the burglar?

One alternate interpretation would be that of a wry, insiders, sardonic little joke, & I think that the presence of Winking Smiley Face offers some credence to this read on the comment; e.g. "Does she go, is she goer, wink wink, nudge nudge know what I mean, know what I mean?" Not everyone is a troll and/or a champion for the cause of evil triumphing over good, (nor is everyone knowledgeable and/or appreciative of Monty Python ).

a = white b = black x = percentage of saturationxa + xb = Gray = most all things in the known world & beyond there be dragons

Residential alarms also usually just make a lot of noise, they don't automatically alert the police. If they did, the amount of police time wasted would be immense. As for alerting the customer, would you walk out if work if your alarm went off?.

I beg to differ. If you have a service like Brinks, or one of their many competitors, the police do indeed get alerted. The company will try to contact you first to make sure it is not a false alarm, but if they can't or if you confirm you are not home, then they call 911 and get an officer sent out there.

And it does generate wastes of time and expense for the police. Which is why after so many false alarms, the police start charging you a fee for the calls.

Residential alarms also usually just make a lot of noise, they don't automatically alert the police. If they did, the amount of police time wasted would be immense. As for alerting the customer, would you walk out if work if your alarm went off?.

I beg to differ. If you have a service like Brinks, or one of their many competitors, the police do indeed get alerted. The company will try to contact you first to make sure it is not a false alarm, but if they can't or if you confirm you are not home, then they call 911 and get an officer sent out there.

And it does generate wastes of time and expense for the police. Which is why after so many false alarms, the police start charging you a fee for the calls.

He was caught while (apparently) breaking into someone else's house. The article doesn't describe how they linked him to this crime, or how the GPS devices were discovered.

Hopefully he installed that GPS unit wearing gloves.

Are you trolling or do you genuinely not want the cops to have some good evidence against the burglar?

One alternate interpretation would be that of a wry, insiders, sardonic little joke, & I think that the presence of Winking Smiley Face offers some credence to this read on the comment; e.g. "Does she go, is she goer, wink wink, nudge nudge know what I mean, know what I mean?" Not everyone is a troll and/or a champion for the cause of evil triumphing over good, (nor is everyone knowledgeable and/or appreciative of Monty Python ).

Are you trolling or do you genuinely not want Wulfrick to have an unspoiled moment of sanctimony?

Residential alarms also usually just make a lot of noise, they don't automatically alert the police. If they did, the amount of police time wasted would be immense. As for alerting the customer, would you walk out if work if your alarm went off?.

I beg to differ. If you have a service like Brinks, or one of their many competitors, the police do indeed get alerted. The company will try to contact you first to make sure it is not a false alarm, but if they can't or if you confirm you are not home, then they call 911 and get an officer sent out there.

And it does generate wastes of time and expense for the police. Which is why after so many false alarms, the police start charging you a fee for the calls.

Further clarification... There's a distinct difference between an alarm activation and a 'trouble alarm' or an alarm going 'off line'. While a trouble alarm can indicate that someone cut the lines to prevent the alarm from sending a signal to an alarm monitoring company, it is more often some dufous with a shovel or 'bubba with a backhoe' somewhere down the block or a squirrel chewing in a cable somewhere generating intermittent shorts in the circuit. How those situations are handled varies by individual contract.

A homeowner in an area with sketchy infrastructure/phone lines may choose to have trouble alarms only notify him/her rather than sent to local law enforcement for just the reason noted previously - false alarm charges. This is somewhat less common now that alarm company connectivity via Internet (or the presence of wireless backups) is more common.

Residential alarms also usually just make a lot of noise, they don't automatically alert the police. If they did, the amount of police time wasted would be immense. As for alerting the customer, would you walk out if work if your alarm went off?[/quote]

Residential alarms are tied to an alarm company who contacts the police when an alarm goes off and they can't contact the homeowner.

In most cities you have to get a license for a home alarm system (costs me $20 a year) you also get two false alarms before the city/municpality fines you big dollars ( I think our city has set the fines at $250 for the third false alarm that results in police appearing at your property) I know this because I had my alarm going off multiple times while we were away (heater was blowing curtains setting off motion sensor, I finally had the alarm company disable it until we could get home).